Toby
by Erin Nightshade
Summary: Paranormal Activity 3 Centered. Takes place before the horror really starts. Enjoy!


Disclaimer: I love the Paranormal Activity films. I have seen all 3. Paranormal Activity 3 is the most recent. I saw that one by myself & I also saw Paranormal Activity 2 by myself. But anyway, I'm most intrigued about them using the fear of a child having a imaginary friend & being creepy about it. Yeah, it was awesome. By the way, if you have not seen the films or have not seen Paranormal Activity 3, do not read this. It contains things from the movie. Not really spoilers or anything used in the film but some plot elements from the film. I do not own any of the characters or what you are about to read either.

Oh & this is just a one-shot type of thing. too. Not continuing this.

K, enjoy.

Eight year old Kristie was watching TV with her ten year old sister, Katie. Every channel seemed to have a commercial however and Katie was just flipping through the stations and Kristie had seen something she liked or rather, seemed to like. She turned her head in her sister's direction to look at her as though she were about to ask Katie to stay on that channel. Though, Katie was bored and staring at the TV with no interest. Their mom and her boyfriend were out in the back yard, hanging with a few of the neighbors and being adult, so the two girls had decided to stay inside.

"Toby wants to watch this channel", Kristie finally spoke up after a second or so.

Katie gave an eye roll before swiveling her head to give her sister the _"oh not this again" _look. Kristie had had this _imaginary friend _for weeks now. Several to be exact. Katie didn't know when she had started insisting that 'Toby' was real but it was annoying. Kristie was fine at school around other children but it was only at home did 'Toby' manifest and Kristie became withdrawn and secretive but this only caused their parents to shrug it off as nothing more than they had a child with an over active imagination, no harm in it and they speculated that it was just a phase. 'Toby' would go away eventually.

"Fine, I guess we can watch whatever _Toby _wants", Katie mocked with sarcasm.

"You shouldn't make fun of him", Kristie told her in a soft quiet voice, "He doesn't like it".

"Kristie, really, please can we not talk about Toby. I mean, it was okay the first week but Toby is not real", Katie exclaimed, sighing in frustration and leaning her chin on her hand and looking towards the television with more disinterest before.

Kristie said nothing and sat back against the couch, hands folded in her lap. The house was quiet for some few minutes before there seemed to be a light thumping on the stairs leading up to the loft where the girls room was. It more or less sounded like the house was settling and houses creaked, even during the day and it also was hard to tell because of the volume of the TV but even so, Kristie seemed to be the only one to hear it.

"I think you hurt Toby's feelings", Kristie said, without looking away from the TV.

"I did not do any-", Katie started to say.

There was a loud sound over head like something fell over. Like books. The two girls stared at each other before going upstairs to see if the bookshelf had finally collapsed with the weight of the many story books and coloring books and everything else they piled onto it. When they reached the top of the loft, the only noise in the house was the sound of the television still going on downstairs. Nothing was out of place except for a pile of coloring books that had fallen to the floor but Katie remembered they had been untidily piled anyway and had been looking like the Leaning Tower of Pisa for days. One of the books had fallen open and black crayon had hazed a beautifully colored picture of a mermaid that Katie had colored sometime ago.

"KRISTIE!" Katie cried, stooping and picking up the book, looking upset.

"I didn't do it Katie. Honest!" Kristie told her, clutching her hands to her chest, looking as though she were ready to cry.

Katie showed her the page that been desecrated, "I don't color on your pages. I can't believe you did this!"

"Katie, I didn't do it!" Kristie's eyes were becoming misty, "Honest I didn't, honest", her eyes were filling with tears.

"Then who Kristie? Who?" Katie wanted to know, "Toby? Did _Toby_ do this?" Although, again, she was mocking her sister. "Your such a baby Kristie. Blaming things on your imaginary friend", she cleaned up the stack of coloring books and then frustratedly stuffed them back onto the book shelf before turning back to her sister, "Stop acting like your five. Toby is not real", she then turned and headed back down stairs.

Neither of the girls had noticed that the door to the crawl space in the corner was open. Kristie just stood near the top of the stairs. Looking solemn and hurt that her sister blamed her for coloring in her coloring book. Kristie looked crestfallen and hung her head as she followed in her sister's wake down the stairs. When Kristie was out of ear shot and back in the living room, the door to the crawl space shut with a light 'snap'.

That night, as the family slept, there was some scratching noises coming from the crawl space. The noises stopped as soon as Kristie woke up. She had awoken, not because of the noises but because she had to use the bathroom. After doing her business, she went to the sink and stood there looking into the mirror as she washed her hands and whipped them. Having dried her hands, she turned her head to the right and looked up as though someone were standing next to her.

"Katie didn't mean it", she spoke very quietly, looking down after a moment as though ashamed, "Come on Toby, we should go back to bed".

After at least a couple minutes, Kristie left the bathroom and turned off the light. Hoping not to wake her sister, Kristie got back into bed and went back to sleep. Katie went undisturbed, even having heard the toilet flush. Nothing was heard the rest of the night. However, the next morning, Katie found that the bathroom light had somehow come on during the middle of the night and had been left on throughout.

"Mom, Kristie left the bathroom light on last night", Katie told her mother.

"I did not. I turned it off. Toby must have had to use the-", Kristie started to say but trailed off at seeing her sister give her a look.

"Well, unless Toby wants to pay the electrical bill, tell him he needs to learn to keep the lights off okay sweetie?" their mother stated, smiling at her youngest daughter and ignoring the look on her other daughters face.

"Okay", Kristie muttered going over to the kitchen table.

Katie rolled her eyes once again. She couldn't believe her mother was just shrugging this off. But she decided not to hound on it because it was just feeding into Kristie's imagination and the fact that she thought _Toby _was real. And Katie wanted to go one breakfast without hearing about him. So she settled in sitting and listening to her parents talk while eating her cereal.

**The real paranormal activity began 3 nights later when Dennis hooks up cameras in the house after the 'Earthquake' they had in their home. **


End file.
